Good discussion on using a garmin during a race. I admit I am horrible running by feel, and I really rely on my garmin to keep me at my desired pace on long runs....not track work at all. Last fall at the beginning of my marathon I pressed my start button and took off. After about a 1/2 mile my garmin lost the satellites (tall buildings) and I then was really worried about "me" running by feel the rest of the way. I luckily found a lot of runners that were trying to run my pace, and I ran with these people as much as I could. Last Sat running my 18 miles at MP, I totally relied on my garmin to keep me between 7:50 to 7:55 pace. When I started my MP miles I was running at a effort that "felt" like my MP, but in reality I was running between 8:30 to 8:15 ave pace. To wake my legs up I ran a mile at 7:45 pace - watching my garmin - and then I was able to cruise the rest of my run. Point being - I think Bill would do great running by feel, and / or just using a lap feature on a watch. Me, I just can't seem to get the feel of paces without some sort of help - garmin, pacers, and such. I hate this, but I really am trying to get the "feel" of my MP. On general runs like I had last Sat, a garmin surely gets the paces awfully close right? If so, and a person doesn't lose satellites during a race....why is a garmin so bad to use then? (not arguing the fact, but just curious) I am still a relatively new runner, especially at the Marathon distance. So I am going to make a concerted effort to figure my paces out. Bill, I am so excited for you, with your great training...I think you are going to have a "break out" race. Holly, I totally agree with you about Twokittycat having such a great attitude...and sooo happy he stills posts here. RA would not be the same without the great guy Timbo

I would run with Mr. Garmin. You're used to him. He's your friend. He will help you.

Good morning. About 8 miles is about 62 mins, kind of like the old PBJ special. Pretty strong run by recent standards. Probably will do elliptical tomorrow to play it safe. Still some butt/hip crankiness. I have tentatively decided to try the Pineland 25k trail race, again on a pretty relaxed basis in terms of expectations. It is up in Maine a bit outside Portland. Wide trails but heinously hilly. Should be fun, something diferent. I am still not sure how much runnning I can do and stay in one piece, kind of feeling my way along. Bill, I would leave the Garmin at home... but then I don't have a Garmin! Many of my runs are completley untimed; for others I use my Timex Ironman. I don't want space aliens telling me to speed up, slow down or scale a building. Happy running or resting! Hugs to the injured reserves.

I would never leave my Garmin at home. I have pretty much figured out how my Garmin pace compares to reality and I adjust my desired pace accordingly. I check the distance at each mile marker to see if the Garmin error is about what I expect. I also like to have the splits available after the race so that I can analyze how I did. Having said that, I totally ignore it on hills. I know what my hill pace should feel like, and I don't want to be tempted to run the hills any faster, because it'll suck the glycogen right out of me. Of course, my race times are so close to BQ, that I really need to know how I'm doing towards the end of the race. 5 miles this morning at 10:11 pace in light rain.

eliz4015 a busted Garmin?! My life would be over I tell you over! My only advice is order one now! Well, actually that is my only advice.

LOL! That's exactly what I did, right after I posted. Even paid extra for overnight shipping, and still brought it in for under $200. I might get the other one refurbished and leave it at the shore house. Eliz

Lightning out there today so I went indoors on the Y track. 5 miles easy, although those turns, at 14 laps to a mile and no banking, were tough. You think H and H doesn't make a difference? Yesterday I struggled to maintain 8 minute pace doing 4 x 800 outdoors. Today I ran the 5 in 44:04 with the final mile at 7:46. Of course there is an advantage to downloading lots of useful info from a Garmin post race as with the Timex you just see the splits for the miles you hit the lap counter. I seldom miss. But the Garmin on a certified course has two compelling disadvantages for me. 1) It measures distances inaccurately, and will not be as accurate as the course measurement. The example I use is that you are trying to run an 8 minute per mile pace. You get to mile 1 and find you have run it at 7:55, but the Garmin tells you your actual distance is 1.06. If that's true, you are WAY too fast! What to do? I'll tell you what you do. You get confused, that's what, and in a race you don't need to bring along a device that is going to confuse you or take away your confidence. How many people here have run a marathon on a certified course and insist on telling us that according to their Garmin they actually ran far longer. They actually believe this! 2) The pace feature is just simply useless. We can go on and on about it, but all of you who have used a Garmin and looked at this feature know perfectly well it is the most unreliable information you have ever seen. If you have a simple lap counter watch, go out easy and hit your one mile split and check the time. There are lots and lots of miles in a marathon. You'll be fine. Spareribs

Ribs, case and point with me - if I was off pace and using a lap feature every mile, wouldn't that be a long way to run to find out...maybe to fast, maybe to slow. I know on my MP run last Sat, I found myself slowing slightly to 8:00 to 8:05 (not laboring or being tired though) then I would simply pick it up a little bit to stay at my desired pace. I do, I really do wish I had a better feel of running paces....especially MP Suppose with time and experience I will figure this out. Tim

Bill, leave the Garmin at home. Go out today and with all that money you make, buy yourself a simple Timex Ironman watch with lap feature and use that. The Garmin is useless on a certified course and runs the risk of simply confusing you.

This is what I do. I use the Garmin for training (and even then it's mainly a recording device so I can look at the data after the fact) and for races I have the Timex Ironman. For me less data is better when I am racing. Speaking of effort, and this is timely, last night I ran my first 5K of the season and did so without a watch. There was no one on the course calling out splits so I did not know what my time was until I saw the clock at the finish. I did this just to see how close my perception of 5K effort was to reality. My time was in line with where I think my fitness is so I call the experiment a success. This is something I wouldn't do all of the time, but I think it's beneficial to do it every now and then. It was an interesting, and fun, experience.